Legend of the Great Sage (Chapter 1-Chapter 100)

Li Qingshan said, “I always bear the consequences of my actions! I have no need for you to bear the blame. Please come with me!” He called out to the three rascals as well as a few respected elders of the village. They arrived at the witch’s backyard.

Li Qingshan looked back. His gaze landed on the area below the eaves of the building before he nodded. Everyone followed his gaze and looked over, but there was nothing. Xiao An was currently hiding in the shade, pointing at an area.

Under Li Qingshan’s order, the three scoundrels began to dig. They were all under Li Qingshan’s watch, so they all dug as hard as they could, afraid of slacking off. Before long, they had excavated a pit and dug out a skeleton.

Li Qingshan went into the pit and collected the remains. He glanced back below the eaves and ordered, “Keep digging!” These were not Xiao An’s remains.

Under Xiao An’s guidance, Li Qingshan had them dig around some other places, and they excavated a few more bones. Everyone in the surroundings was shocked. Why were there so many skeletons buried in the witch’s backyard? Moreover, all of them seemed to belong to children.

Li Qingshan was rather surprised as well as his expression grew sterner. He knew that these were victims to the evil arts the witch had been practising. The cluster of Ghost Mist filled with resentment must have come from here. He only regretted giving the witch too easy of a death.

At this moment, there was a ding like they had hit something. They carefully dug it out, only to find a porcelain jar. It was tightly sealed.

Before Li Qingshan could stop them, the three scoundrels scrambled to open the jar. A small cluster of black gas rushed out and squirmed into the mouth and nose of a scoundrel as if it were afraid of sunlight.

The scoundrel shuddered and fell unconscious on the spot. Before long, he stopped breathing.





Chapter 16: White Bone and White Silver | Legend of the Great Sage




The two other scoundrels paled and became immobilised with fright, but the items in the porcelain jar immediately blinded their eyes. Pieces of glistening silver filled the jar. They had never seen so much money in their lives. Even caretaker Liu and a few village elders who were on their last legs were visibly moved.

Li Qingshan pushed them away, and they almost flew into a rage. No matter how cowardly people were, they would be tempted by wealth and could become vicious for it. However, when they saw it was Li Qingshan, they were afraid of doing anything.

Li Qingshan was in no mood to care about their thoughts. He placed the jar aside. A tiny skeleton laid below the jar. Blood and flesh had already rotted off from the skeleton completely, revealing a greyish-white colour. Who knows how long it had been buried there.

Xiao An finally nodded, and Li Qingshan sighed gently. He looked around and tipped out all of the silver in the porcelain jar before storing the skeleton inside.

The silver pieces rolled onto the floor and formed quite a pile.

With that, everyone’s eyes became glued to the pile. They even stopped caring about the remains.

Caretaker Liu was someone experienced and knowledgeable, having gone out and seen the world. He roughly estimated that there were several hundred taels of silver there. Even he became green with greed, let alone the others.

In a tiny mountain village like this, that was truly a tremendous sum.

Li Qingshan had never expected the witch to have managed to extort so much silver over the years either. As the saying went, wealth tempts people. He was not an otherworldly immortal who had transcendent worldly affairs, so he was also affected by the sum. After all, there were plenty of aspects where he would have to spend money in the future!

Just in terms of meat, he did not want to continue relying on the black ox. Since the black ox wanted him to be independent, he wanted to show it just how independent he could be. Moreover, he wanted to change up his tastes. Maybe he could go to the market and buy some good alcohol as well.

However, he also understood the principle of ‘The wages of avarice is death’. If he took all of the silver with him, these people would be afraid of saying anything due to fearing his might, but they would definitely resent him, which would bury quite a large seed of misfortune. Even the death of the witch might not be able to pacify them.

“Village head Li, you are the person of the highest prestige and respect in this village. Let’s hear if you have any plans regarding this silver.” Li Qingshan wiped off the blood from his steel blade and stowed it back into the sheathe. He seemed to be letting village head Li take charge, but he stressed the words ‘highest prestige and respect’ when he mentioned it.

“I’m flattered, but it’s all thanks to Erlang for removing such a great menace from the village. You should be the one who decides what happens to this silver.” The village head had just played a disgraceful role a few days ago, so he felt like Li Qingshan’s words were filled with intimidation. How could he ever agree to his suggestion?

Li Qingshan looked around, and all those he saw nodded in a hurry. “You decide, Erlang!” Only then did he nod slowly. He did not mind sharing some silver in exchange for peace, but if there really were someone ignorant enough to decide what to do with his spoils of battle, then they would have to ask whether the blade in his hand agreed to it or not.

Every single person in the crowd was much older than Li Qingshan, yet they had to follow the arrangements of a fifteen year old. However, none of them felt unhappy with that. The current Li Qingshan was no longer the Li Qingshan of the past. His viciousness and decisiveness that came with drawing the blade and committing murder had stunned them.

Li Qingshan sat down to split the silver. He pressed one hand on the porcelain jar that held the white skeleton as he leaned on his blade with the other hand. The adults and old people all lowered their heads and listened to him closely.

However, the first person to receive a share of silver surprised all of them slightly.

“Uncle Fugui, the witch destroyed your family, so you deserve compensation. You better take this silver. Don’t drown yourself in alcohol anymore. Only then can you console the dead.” Li Qingshan used the sheath of the blade and parted some silver from the edge of the pile.

“H- how can I accept that!” Li Fugui had never expected Li Qingshan to say that. He was at a loss as for what to do.

“Take it!” Li Qingshan actually did this more to thank and praise him for his courage of standing forward and trying to bear the blame for the murder.

Li Fugui accepted the silver in gratitude and bewilderment.

Next, Li Qingshan called over the two scoundrels. “This is for you.” He glanced at the dead scoundrel on the ground. “And him too. Take him back and bury him. Work and earn a living properly in the future. Don’t continue doing underhanded things like stealing, or you’ll probably end up suffering the same fate.”

The two scoundrels were both surprised and overjoyed as they collected their silver. When Li Qingshan mentioned their companion, they became rather pale, but they did not seem particularly anguished. Who knows whether they could purposefully shell out money to have their companion buried.

In the end, Li Qingshan clasped his fist at caretaker Liu, village head Li, and the group of village elders. “In the past few days, I have offended you all. Please take this silver as an apology. I hope you can forgive me for my ignorance. However, if there are any more people who disrespect the old, harass the weak, or other fellow villagers…” That was how he put it, but he did not seem apologetic at all. Towards the end, he even became stern.



“That’ll never happen! That’ll never happen!” These people said together.

Li Qingshan nodded and split out a pile of silver for them to share between themselves.